I was thinking of the same episode. It's weird how we've surpassed almost all of the science fiction of my youth, let alone that written before I was born. [baen.com] In 1966 everything in Star Trek was pure fantasy -- doors that opened all by themselves, space shuttles, talking voice-activated computers with flat screens, communicators, McCoy's sick bay (you kids can't imagine how primitive medicine was in 1966), Uhura's bluetooth earpiece... all fantasy that nobody ever expected to actually see in their lifetimes. Yet the only things from STOS we don't have today is matter replicators and warp drives.

Forget all that, think about the possibilities of inherited genetic memory! Imagine being born with the knowledge of a PhD in ten different fields and being able to speak fifty languages. All we'd need is a way to access the information stored in the DNA. This may in fact become essential as the amount of time it takes to gain mastery in a field exceeds the human lifespan, as it eventually will. And each new generation could be upgraded with the achievements of the last, the technological and cultural advan

I RTFA'ed about 3 times. I'm a biologist. I don't get it. It's much more interesting from a biological perspective than a digital media perspective, where it is functionally useless. You're never going to see a "cell drive" in computers. And copying data (by cell division) can take hours.

The bit they are triggering is responsible for changing the color of fluorescence. From TFA:

They used RAD to modify a particular section of DNA within microbes that determines how the one-celled organisms will fluoresce under ultraviolet light. The microbes glow red or green depending upon the orientation of the section of DNA.

Bonnet has now tested RAD modules in single microbes that have doubled more than 100 times and the switch has held. He has likewise switched the latch and watched a cell double 90 times, and set it back. The latch will even store information when the enzymes are not present. In short, RAD works. It is reliable and it is rewritable.

When the microbes double, the bit is copied. Just wait until the RIAA finds out!

This reminds me of a fantastic book called Blood Music by the science fiction author Greg Bear. In the book a geneticist working on biochip development develops a system for storing and transmitting information between single cells using DNA and RNA. He creates cells that are able to communicate and incorporate elements of RNA and as such optimise themselves to overcome environmental challenges. He soon sees the emergence of rudimentary intelligence on a cellular basis, but is shut down before he can pursue his experiments further. He smuggles his creations out of the lab by injecting them into his own body, which proves to be a perfect environment for the development of full intelligence....

erm... sci-fi? Ever heard of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacterial_conjugation as an example of horizontal transfer of genetic information? It's real and it's one of the reason we have major trouble with resistent super bacteriae like O/MRSA and VRE.